Well first week in Elche with my new companion. Elche is a lot different than San Fernando. It´s HUGE!!! San Fernando was a small town and this place is huge. I´ll tell you one thing, if I wasn´t good with a map now, I am a complete champ now! Whew!
Things are good here. It´s hard. San Fernando was so warm and welcoming and here they aren´t so much. I heard the culture was different here in the Northern part and boy were they right. I miss my old area a lot. I could joke around with everyone and be myself. Here it is a lot different. But it´s okay. Every area is different. I know I will love it by the end...I sure hope so at least! And yes, there are many palm trees. It´s like a bomb of palm trees. Crazy.
The ward is nice...I don´t know the members all too well yet. We don´t have a member list yet so that is a little hard cause it´s mostly us just walking around Elche contacting and looking at old investigators and going to their house. My feet are very sore. I have never seen them this fat in my whole life. It´s tough but once we get all our materials, it will be better. Opening an area is tough but it will get better. The Lord will help us out. I know he will.
Ha our apartment is very interesting. It´s pretty ghetto, but I like it that way. Makes me think I´m living a rugged life, haha. To use our oven, you have to use fire! You literally have to make fire to get it to work. It´s pretty awesome. It´s definitely in one of the sketchier parts of town though, but it´s all good. We´re safe. We aren´t allowed to go to the church except for on Sundays cause it´s too dangerous. People hide in the palm trees and jump out and it could be dangerous for sister missionaries. It´s definitely different than San Fernando that´s for sure!
My journey here was interesting. So, the mission home is in Fuengirola...about an hour out of Malaga. Usually, they assign missionaries to their trainers in Fuengirola so my zone leaders told me to go to Fuengirola when I got to Malaga on the train. So I got off the train in Malaga and there were missionaries there waiting. They helped me with my bags...one of my bags has a wheel broken so you literally have to drag the thing everywhere...it´s a workout...I´m getting strong...and they sent me on a small train to Fuengirola. I get off and Elders aren´t there. It´s ok though, I had the address to the mission office. I asked around and eventually found the office. I knocked....nobody there, uh oh. I didn´t panic though. I decided to go out and ask someone to use their phone. I didn´t have mine since I had to leave it in San Fernando. Nobody would let me use their phone! So there I was all alone walking around this city trying to figure out where to go. Finally this guy let me use his and the AP picked up and told me that everyone was in Malaga. Grrreat. So I just went back to the office and sat down and read the Book of Mormon for a couple hours. Haha, I think that will be the only time I will ever walk around a city for a couple hours by myself on the mission. It was an interesting experience.
But now I have my companion! Her name is Hermana Cameron and she is from Idaho!!! It´s awesome. Pocatello. She doesn´t speak any Spanish so we are working on it. It´s a blast with her though. She is so great. She has a strong testimony and I´m glad she is alright with opening the area and having a trainer who has no idea what she is doing, haha. It´s crazy.
Well, I think that´s about it for now. Oh, I´m an official missionary now. All the official missionaries have holes in their shoes and my shoes are coming apart. The whole front can come off if I pull it. Welcome to true missionary life! Haha. Thanks everyone and we´ll talk next week.
Hermana Kunz
Hermana Kunz with her new companion fresh from the MTC, Hermana Cameron, who Laura will be training. They are opening a new area in Elche, Spain.
